AF paid upgrades, ORD to CDG, advice?
 

I realize there is an existing 60-page, 900 post thread on these :) and have read through it for highlights.

It appears AF may email us (I'm inside T-5d), we may call and ask, or we can wait and see if we get an offer during OLCI.

Flight has J8 right now, looking for 2 seats, other passenger is a DL FO, I'm willing to pay pretty much anything within the offers I've seen.

Anything else I should know or do?

Have you looked for information about this in the AF forum?

BTW, to receive these offers, it might make a difference whether your flight is marketed by AF (i.e., not using a DL codeshare flight number) and with the ticket on AF stock.

Realized that I'd posted over here on DL just after posting, may message a moderator to move :).

The long AF thread is here FWIW: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...s-cash-af.html (<<-- EDITED!)

I ticketed on KLM, it would be interesting to know if ticketing airline matters but FWIW I don't think I've seen that.

Thanks.

I've never received an upgrade offer by email, but have received the banner during OLCI both on AF.com and on the AF App. Also (and more recently) I have not seen any banner promoting the upgrade, but when I go to the seat map, it allows me to select an upgraded seat.

No difference at all...Once OLCI opens, whoever is targeted will receive the offer no matter who the marketing carrier is or the ticket stock.

In my experience, if you have not received an upgrade offer, most likely you will receive it. Once you got one and took it, forget about it in the near future. At the airport, however, it matters, as DL coded / AF operated flights cannot be upgraded at the airport.

My sense is that the emailed offer era was over some time ago.

Do you know or have a sense of whether there is any point to calling AF, or are they all at OLCI as far as you know?

So... since I haven't flown AF metal on a transatlantic in a few years (I tend to avoid for DL, but this time it made more sense) nor ever taken an offer, you're saying it's very likely at OLCI?

Other questions: can you clarify the period until another offer-- a month, three months, six months? does choosing an upgrade on a flight inside Europe or Europe-mideast change eligibility?

Thanks.

I've only ever got an email offer on my last AF flight, which was AF coded and ticketed this past April. Didn't take the offer, and got an op-up on the way back ;-).

Never have gotten an OLCI offer.

At MSP upgrades on the AF flight MSP-CDG are frequently offered at the gate if the space is available in Business. The price depends on the original fare base. That only happens for the AF-operated flights to CDG, not the flights on DL metal.

I had no problem last month calling AF a week or two before departure and upgrading from PE to B for 20,000 SkyMiles.

If it's the usual A330, be aware that J is 2-2-2 angled. I got an op-up from PE recently, can't complain about that, but the upgrade price would have to be fairly low to get me to bite, due to the dated configuration.

I don't believe the dated configuration had to do with the price. JFK-CDG has both BEST and NEV4 configurations and the price tends to be the same. My nonstop CDG-SDQ flight is NEV4 and the price for the upgrade is twice or even three times as much as flights on longer routes with BEST seats.

Thanks all from the 2C "arrivals" lounge, (which happens to be on lockdown... evidently... something is going on out there ... )

559 Euros "economy to business" was the offer at the check-in counter, evidently regardless of economy fare class, FWIW. (AF was notably down on seats). The guy next to us at check-in managed to be just rude enough that his transaction didn't go through. Dommage, as it opened up a pair of seats.

Is there a dedicated AF check-in desk at ORD? For JFK, this has always been the best way to get a paid upgrade- by going to the check-in desk and asking what is available.

Keith

There is. Since it also serves KLM, you can use it from noon onwards, as long as you are nice, though I'm not sure how early they will start selling upgrades.

There is an unconfirmed thread over on the AF forum, which suggests they will be implementing an online system with variable pricing. FWIW, YMMV.

559 Euros was more than I'd have liked to pay, but it was alright. The pillow was better than expected, and I'd brought my own kit (for 2 in this case) anyway. Put the right pillow in the foot well, an angled pad center of seat, and make sure to move up to the top... at 6'1" I was fine. The meal was served early, so it temped me to stay up, and was worth the hour of sleep.

They did fly 2 empty, but in this case-- 12 hours 15 minutes to my next flight-- purchasing the J seat was worth it, and I'd have gone higher. Getting stuck in the arrivals lounge as they cleared a security situation? Such are unanticipated contingencies ...

Anything that leads to greater transparency and visibility for upgrade offers is OK by me. That's one of my major gripes with Delta- all the D1 upgrade offers are very cloak-and-dagger. Maybe you get an offer, maybe you don't. No check-in desk or Medallion line agent can see them or offer them. So there's no telling if you'll even get a chance at a D1 upgrade in the T-24 period.

Keith